A symmetric complements refer to goods where one good is more dependent on the other, yet consumers receive enhanced utility from consuming both. Examples include garden hoses and sprinklers, chips and dip, and routine versus personalized services where the former has a broader base for utility generation and the latter is more dependent on the other's presence. Measuring asymmetric effects is difficult when all that is observed are the purchase quantities present in a consumer's market basket. We propose a direct utility model with a latent decision sequence for measuring asymmetric effects that allows us to capture differential responses to cross-category purchases and inventories. Scanner panel data of milk and cereal purchases are used to investigate the presence of asymmetric complementarity, and implications are explored through counterfactual analyses involving cross-price elasticities and spillover effects of merchandising variables.
Compartment syndrome after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a rare complication. Because of its rarity, it may be overlooked and misdiagnosed as peroneal nerve palsy or deep vein thrombosis. This misdiagnosis could have a profound impact on the patient's outcome. We report a case of a 77-year-old female who developed unilateral compartment syndrome in the calf after staged bilateral TKA at an outside clinic. The patient presented with medical complications related to compartment syndrome: rhabdomyolysis and myoglobinuria, which caused acute renal failure. Thus, we performed late fasciotomy one week after symptom onset to debride necrotic tissue and salvage the compartment. In the discussion section, we will discuss risk factors for compartment syndrome after TKA, results of late fasciotomy and other indications for surgical treatment of compartment syndrome.
Promotions are used in marketing to increase sales and drive profits by temporarily decreasing the price per unit of a good. Some price promotions apply to all quantities (20% off), some have limits on the number of units that can be purchased at a reduced price, and others only offer the discount if the volume purchased is sufficiently high. We develop a model of price promotions in the context of a direct utility model where its effects are incorporated through the budget constraint. Price promotions complicate the estimation and analysis of direct utility models because they induce kinks and points of discontinuity in the budget set. We propose a Bayesian approach to addressing these irregularities and demonstrate the ability of the direct utility model to be used in counterfactual analyses of price promotions. We investigate the stability of utility function estimates for consumers under alternative price promotions, and find that the majority of the effect of a price promotion is through the budget set, not through changes in the utility function. We also investigate the economic value of customized price promotions where the customization includes the value and format of the offer. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2015.0948 .
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